Dragon's Teeth
by LastCorsair
Summary: Ruby, Yang, Blake, and their new friend Weiss share a passion for the online mecha combat game Sparta, even dreaming of winning big at tournaments. Then the game becomes all too real. High School/Mecha AU
1. Cold Boot

Crescent Rose jerked back behind the building, dodging a volley of autocannon fire. Dammit, this mission was impossible! They gave her a heavy assault panzer for a stealth infiltration mission. Might as well ask her to take a brass band along with her.

Okay, she had an assault panzer. Time to make that work for her. Readying both of her own heavy autocannons, Rose jumped back around the corner, targeting both of the enemy panzers that thought they had her pinned down, the mix of armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds hammering into her foes, shattering their armor, smashing vital systems and leaving them smoking wrecks. Before she could move on, the cockpit hatch on the left wreck opened and the pilot stumbled out, collapsing on the ground, blood pooling under his body.

Rose stood there, frozen in shock for half a moment before continuing on. There was no time to waste; the clock was running and there was only so much time before the window of opportunity recon had spotted ran out. Time enough to mourn the fallen later, especially fallen enemies. She hurried on, pushing the assault panzer to the limits of its speed, knowing she was doing unholy things to it that the techs would be furious about her for later.

Finally, she lumbered around the corner of a ruined office building, her objective in sight. Unfortunately so were four enemy panzers, who opened fire as soon as she was in sight. Under the weight of the enemy's combined heavy autocannon and rocket fire, her panzer fell to the ground a broken, burning ruin.

* * *

MISSION FAILED

"No duh," Ruby Rose muttered to herself as she pushed the NI headset up on her head. Instead of being strapped into the cockpit of an armored humanoid fighting machine, she lay on the bed in her room, the devastation that was a standard teenage girl's bedroom strewn around her.

Well, almost. Instead of posters of pop stars, Ruby had panzers on her walls. A cut-away diagram of a Claymore-class panzer decorated the back of her bedroom door. Gaming magazines were strewn across the bedroom floor, the articles about Sparta heavily thumbed.

"Ruby Rose, come eat your breakfast now!" Mama Raven yelled up the stairs. "You're running out of time to make your train. If you miss it this time, you can walk to school, I'm not driving you!"

"Yeah, Rubes, come on," Ruby's sister Yang yelled. "And there's even waffles this morning if you're fast enough."

"Waffles!" Faster than should have been humanly possible, Ruby grabbed her school uniform jacket, her feet pounding down the stairs. Sliding into her seat at the table, she noticed one face missing. "Where's Mama Summer?"

Raven scowled. "She didn't get home until almost five A.M. Rough night at the ER." She relented with a sigh, "I'll just be glad when she gets off this night rotation. "

Yang looked up from her plate at her mother. "We miss seeing her too, mom."

Raven laid a hand on her Yang's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "I know, Yang. It still hurts to see her stumbling in the door, exhausted like that." Now Raven's eyes grew hard as they turned to her other daughter. "And I'll bet you were playing that damn game again.

Ruby sighed. It never paid to hide the truth from Raven, it always made her madder when you did. "Yeah, I was. I found a new way of trying that one new mission that everyone says is impossible and-"

"Enough." Raven's voice cut across Ruby's babble sharply. "I don't mind you playing that game, Mrymidon or whatever' it's called. But school comes first, okay?"

"It's called Sparta, and yea, school first, I get it, I get it. I just... I want to be the one to crack this mission, okay? It'll be a big boost to my rep on the boards." Ruby was busily scarfing down her waffle; didn't Mama Raven understand how important this was?

Raven shook her head as she sat down to her own breakfast. "I didn't have time or money for video games growing up. You girls are spoiled."

"Meh, it could be worse," Yang shrugged. "Could be like Emerald, who's sitting in jail right now."

Her mother paused, the coffee cup almost to her lips. "And what did this 'Emerald' do to land herself in jail?"

"Stole money from the school, including the money band had raised to go to a competition," Ruby answered, flipping through her phone. "And then tried to knife a cop when they went to arrest her."

"Ruby, no phones at the table or it gets taken away, you know the rules. And yes, I know it could be worse. I just... I just don't want you two doing some of the stupid things I did growing up, understood?" Raven took a deep breath; her therapist had said it was important to engage with both her daughters, talk to them even about trivial things. "You may think it's silly, but it's important to _them,"_ she'd said. "So, what's so maddening about this mission that you two are both obsessing over?" She shrugged. "I'm trying to understand this thing, okay?"

Ruby and Yang shared a look. They both knew the tone that said Raven was trying something from her therapist, and Summer had said they had to be supportive of Raven, so... "It's a really challenging pre-built mission that popped up a couple of weeks ago. You're alone, in a heavy assault panzer, on a mission that's more suited for a recon panzer, and you've got a limited selection of equipment," Ruby answered, giving Raven a smile.

"Rigged setup, got it. And it's not set up as a no-win scenario, is it? Then the solution is to cheat harder than the game is cheating." Raven looked up as the pair of them stared at her, and laughed. "I don't mean _cheating_ cheating, I mean that you have to find the thing whoever built this mission didn't think of when building it. Find a loophole, find a weakness that you can exploit. And you two need to go," she added, glancing at the time.

The sisters ran breathlessly into the station, barely arriving before their metro train left. As they found their seats, something caught Ruby's eye. "Hey, check who's riding the train this morning," she said quietly, jabbing her sister with her elbow.

Sure enough, Weiss Schnee was sitting across from them, eyes fixed on her phone, hunched down like she was trying to hide in plain sight. "Well look what we have here. The princess riding the train like everyone else. Wonder what she did to get that fancy car of hers taken away."

"Yang, that's rude!" Ruby hissed.

"What, she's always going around with her nose in the air, like she's better than everyone else. Might do her good to get taken down a peg or two."

"I can hear you two, you know," Weiss snapped, lifting her eyes to look at Ruby and Yang. "And aren't you the two half-sisters with the deadbeat dad who's in jail, hmm? When's his next parole hearing anyway?"

"Hey!" Yang yelped, rising from her seat before her sister grabbed her arm. "Yang, we don't need to get kicked off the train. And that was really mean, Weiss."

Weiss sniffed. "Fine. I apologize." She turned back to her phone.

"But seriously, what's got you riding the train today? Usually, a car drops you off at school." Yang craned her neck, trying to get a peek at what had the white-haired girl so fascinated. "Hey Ruby, looks like she's trying to crack the same mission you are. Good luck, princess, everybody and their brother's trying to figure that one out."

"You play Sparta, Weiss?" Ruby smiled at Weiss; it seemed strange that the normally aloof girl should do something so... normal.

"D-Doesn't everyone?" Weiss was flustered; she wasn't used to just chatting with people like this.

"Well, yeah, three-quarters of the school. It just seems out of character for you.. You're such a stuck up goody-two-shoes teacher's pet bookworm, right?" Yang gave Weiss a big grin.

"I am not stuck up!" Weiss snapped, then deflated. "Am I?" she asked softly, slumping in her seat.

"You don't talk to anyone, you don't hang out, do clubs or any other after-school stuff, your assignments are always on time and you do extra credit even though you're acing every class, so yeah, you come off as really stuck-up," Ruby answered, counting things off on her fingers.

"I... My mother expects me to excel in school," Weiss answered with a sigh.

"Doesn't mean you can't have friends and fun, though. Hey, why don't you come sit with us at lunch today? It's got to be better than sitting alone like you always do," Ruby said, smiling at Weiss.

"I don't know," answered Weiss. "I, uh, I usually look stuff up on my phone during lunch."

"You mean you surf the Sparta message boards at lunch like Ruby does if we don't stop her," Yang laughed, eliciting a "Hey!" of protest from her sister. "Come on, sit with us. We're trying to get a team together for tournaments. Ruby's sort of our leader, she's really good at thinking up tactics and stuff."

"You're a tactician?" Weiss gave Ruby a look of disbelief. "I have a hard time believing that from a dolt like you. I want to see your game stats. What's your game ID?"

"Cr-Crescent Rose," Ruby stammered, embarrassed.

Weiss's thumb stopped mid-motion, her mouth open. _"You're Crescent Rose?"_ she shrieked, some of the other passengers giving her an annoyed look.

"Y-Yeah, but keep it down, Weiss. Why, what's wrong, I'm not that good," Ruby muttered, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Not that good? Not that good?" Weiss's voice was rising even as she fought to control herself. "Maybe not on the global rankings, but have you looked at just the regional leaderboards? I've been fighting you for the top spot for months," she finished bitterly.

"Awesome!" Yang cheered. "If you're both that good, imagine what you could do if the two of you teamed up. You'd be invincible!"

"I don't think so!" Weiss snapped, turning her head to look out the window and ignoring the sisters for the rest of the ride.

* * *

Lunchtime found the sisters sitting at their usual table in the cafeteria with their best friend, Blake. Ruby was staring at her phone, her eyes wide. "Guys, Weiss had a point this morning. Look at my stats on the regional leaderboards. I'm looking pretty awesome. My biggest rival is somebody named-"

"Myrtenaster." Weiss stood there, holding a lunch tray in her hands. "And before you ask, yes, that's me. May I join you?" Blake scooted over to make room, and Weiss set her tray down, stabbing her salad with a fork.

"So what made you decide to join us, Weiss?" asked Blake.

"What Ruby and Yang said to me on the train. I'm not stuck up, nor really, it's just... my mother pushes me very hard to excel in everything. And I do mean _everything."_

"So it's gotten to be a habit to push yourself," Yang said, shaking her head. "Sounds like you could use some downtime and some friends, princess."

Weiss's head drooped. "Please stop calling me that. I hear people calling me that all the time, and it really bothers me."

"Okay, 'Myrtenaster,'" Ruby said with a grin, making Bake and Yang laugh and bringing a hint of a smile to Weiss's face.

"But seriously, Rubes, if we seriously want to start kicking ass in tournaments, we've got to find a fourth. Four-person teams are where it's at, not solos or doubles. Eyes on the prize, sis, eyes on the prize," Yang said, punching her sister in the arm playfully.

"I know, it's just that most of the good players I know are already on a registered team, or nobody we'd... Say that again, Yang," Ruby replied, staring at Weiss as her voice trailed off.

"We need to find a fourth?"

"That's not it."

"Four-person teams are where it's at?"

"Not it either."

"Eyes on the prize?"

"That's it! Or, not quite." Ruby tapped away busily at her phone. "Yesss, not eyes on the prize, eyes in the skies!" she cackled evilly, looking up at her confused friends. "Remember that impossible mission everyone's been beating their heads on? I've got a new angle on it, maybe even cracked it."

"So are you going to share? Or keep it to yourself?" Weiss gestured at Ruby's phone with her fork. "I assume that's what you've been so busily looking into on your phone?"

Ruby leaned forward, gesturing the other girls closer. "The trick is, taking drones. But not the normal combat drones everyone takes as distractions. Instead take recon drones, stealth drones if you're feeling extravagant."

"The mission does have a very high equipment allowance," Blake muttered, going over the scenario in her head.

"And since it's a _heavy_ assault panzer, it can mount a really big drone rack, for maximum coverage," Yang added, slapping her hand down on the table.

"Not too many drones, I think," Weiss spoke up now. "Enough to give you good coverage, plus some for spares, but limit the number deployed or you'll run a higher risk of being detected."

"I think we have a plan, ladies!" Ruby's eyes were alight with excitement. "The Vale Vixens strike again."

Weiss sniffed. "'Vale Vixens'?" That's your team name? Seriously?"

"Got any better suggestions, prin-uh, Weiss?" Yang growled, stopping herself mid-word from using the hated nickname.

"I don't have to have a better suggestion to know something is terrible!" Weiss shot back.

"Weiss, Yang, easy. Okay, the name could be better, but it's good enough for now. So, meet up after school and number-crunch this thing?" Yang and Blake nodded, but Weiss seemed unsure. "Weiss, something wrong?"

"Am, am I invited? I... I've never really had friends to hang out with before," the white-haired girl murmured, embarrassed. "What would we... do?"

"In this case, sit around, talk about Sparta, and probably end up playing a bit. And I say she gets to join the gang, even if she doesn't join the team," Blake answered, propping her chin up on a hand and looking at Weiss.

"Motion seconded and carried. I kinda like the idea of having our own pocket princess," Yang added, laughing."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ruby whined.

"No," Blake and Yang chorused.

* * *

Yang whistled as she looked up at Weiss's townhouse. "Nice digs, princess. Your mom must be loaded."

"It's family money. She divorced my father several years ago, got full custody of us, and now pays a CEO a hefty salary to run the company, plus other people to keep him honest." Weiss sighed. "My mother's solution to just about any problem is to figure out how to most effectively throw money at the problem. Wait here, I won't be but a minute." It was almost ten minutes before Weiss returned, clutching a shopping bag. "Sorry, my brother caught me. Lately, he's been looking for excuses to get me into trouble with Mother."

"Ratting you out, eh? That's siblings for you," Yang laughed, quirking an eyebrow as she tried to peer in Weiss's bag. "Wow, your rig's kind of old, Weiss."

Weiss stared at her shoes, embarrassed. "Mother... Mother doesn't let me buy video games, she considers them frivolous. I had to save up to buy this with cash. It's the best I could do."

Ruby elbowed her sister in the stomach hard, annoyed with Yang for making Weiss feel bad. "Hey, you do what you can, right? And if nothing else, I've got a spare headset that might work with your unit that you can have. Come on, I think my and Yang's house is closest."

Raven was typing away at her laptop in the living room as they walked in. "Who's this?" She asked, her eyes narrowing as she saw Weiss. "You know I don't like unexpected guests."

"Her name's Weiss, we know her from school, mom. Is Mama Summer up?" Yang asked, stepping around the coffee table to give her mother a hug.

Raven returned the hug with good grace. She hadn't ever been much of a one for hugs, but Summer liked hugs, so Raven hugged. "She's in the shower at the moment. Touch her coffee and die were her words. Are you planning on playing that game of yours?"

"Yeah!" Ruby whooped. "I've got a new angle on that mission that everyone's been trying to crack, the one we talked about this morning, remember?"

"Rigged setup, I remember. Just make sure not to get too sucked into it, she always likes seeing the two of you before heading to work." Raven stood, closing her laptop and looking at the four girls. "Alright, I'll take my work into the office so the four of you can have the living room. But you will spare some time for Summer before she goes to work, understood?"

Ruby and Yang ran upstairs and returned with their NI rigs, Ruby remembering to bring her spare headset for Weiss. "I don't know if it'll work, but we can try it, right?"

Weiss turned the headset over in her hands, looking at it. "It's wonderful," she whispered. All the gifts she could ever remember getting were either practical or so generic that it was obvious that little thought had been put into them. To be given something, even second-hand, that was just for _her_ was... Tears welled in her eyes, and she wiped them away, not caring if the others saw her weakness or not.

"Hey." Weiss looked up to find Ruby's silver orbs meeting her pale blue. "You really don't get to have a lot of fun, or have friends, do you?" Weiss shook her head, not trusting her voice. "Well, you have three friends now, and we are so totally going to kick ass together, got it? Now let's take a look at that mission, shall we?"

* * *

"And if we take a pair of medium autocannons instead of heavies, we can-" Ruby stopped mid-sentence as an orange light began to flash in the corner of her vision."Hold up, gang, someone's paging me." She 'reached' for her real arm outside the virtual reality created by the neural interface, lifting her headset to find a woman who could have been her twin, or maybe her older sister looking down at her. "Hi, mom. Sorry, we were, um distracted when you got out of the shower."

"It's okay. I see we have someone new around; another lost soul?" Summer Rose smiled at the daughter she'd never expected to have. "Get everyone up and around; Raven's making spaghetti, and it should be ready in a few minutes."

"Yay, spaghetti!" Ruby roused the others, and they all trooped into the dining room.

Raven snorted as she set the big bowl of spaghetti down on the table. "Any luck with that mission?"

"You could say that," Weiss answered with a smirk.

"Mission?" Summer asked as she sat down at the opposite end of the table from Raven. "Oh, that game you're all into. Did they add something new?"

"Mm-hm," Ruby mumbled around a piece of garlic bread. At a glare from Raven, she set it down on the edge of her plate and started getting herself some spaghetti, loading it down with sauce. "The update last week added a new mission that was really hard, so hard some people were saying it was impossible."

"Ah, that's what's had your head even deeper in the computer than usual lately." Summer shook her head. She'd never had access to computers or video games growing up, so she just didn't get the attraction. "The four of you were trying to figure out how to beat that mission."

"Not just trying." Weiss smiled smugly pulled out her phone and passed it to Summer, who gave it a puzzled look. "We _beat_ it. And the first person on Remnant to beat the 'impossible mission' is Crescent Rose, also known as Ruby. I was second."

"I suppose that's impressive. Does it get you anything?" Raven asked.

"Are you kidding me?" Ruby squealed. "When someone does something like that, an announcement goes out over the whole game. Everyone who plays Sparta now knows the name, Crescent Rose. Before I logged out, I was getting tons of messages, asking me how I did it, inviting me to join tournament teams. It's _awesome."_

"Congratulations, I suppose. So now what?" Raven shook her head. Surely she'd never been this enthusiastic over something this trivial when she was Ruby's age.

"Now we start practicing and fighting as a team. The Vale Vixens have a fourth now, so we can start working our way up to the big time, real tournaments, the kind with cash prizes. College money, you know."

"I see." Summer gave Raven a look that didn't need words as she started to pass Weiss back her phone. They both gave a slight nod. The idea of paying for college by playing video games didn't quite make sense to either of them; they'd have to research it a bit before letting their girls get too attached to the idea.

Just as Weiss's fingers were touching her phone, it rang, startling her and making her drop it. She picked it up and took a deep breath as she saw the caller ID. "It's my mother. I'm likely to be in trouble for not being where she expects me to be." No use putting this off; she forced a smile as she answered. Her mother couldn't see her face, of course, but it would help put Weiss in the right frame of mind. "Hello, mother. How are you?"

"You weren't here when I got home, Weiss. I don't remember there being anything on your calendar for this evening."

"No, mother, I'm just hanging out with some friends."

"I see. And is there some reason you took that silly machine with you?"

"We were playing Sparta together. And one of my friends got a global achievement; she was the first to beat a mission people were calling impossible. I was second."

"Notable, then, in its own way. Well, I didn't imagine that ridiculous game would ever help you make friends, but I don't see any harm in it. We'll talk more about this when you get home, but don't be too late."

Weiss put the phone away with a confused look on her face. "That was suspiciously easy. I think I will be in some trouble when I get home."

"We've been harboring a fugitive, have we? Wouldn't be a first time," Raven laughed.

"That was just your drunken brother. And all he'd done was make a pass at his CO's not-quite-legal daughter," Summer snarked, and the two older women shared a laugh for a moment. "Now, seriously, Raven, you do remember what today is, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Summer dear," Raven replied archly, taking a sip of her wine.

"It's our anniversary. And you know what that means," Summer said with an impish twinkle in her eye as Yang facepalmed and Ruby rolled her eyes at the ceiling, muttering "Not again, mom."

"Fine." Raven glared down the table at Summer. "Let's get this over with."

'Raven, will you go out on a date with me?" Summer asked, lifting a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.

"Sure," Raven answered, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. Summer spat out the spaghetti in her mouth, pounding herself on the chest as she reached for her own wineglass. Ruby started making gagging noises even as Yang yelled, "What the hell, mom?"

Weiss glanced at Blake sitting next to her, who shrugged in confusion. "I don't understand, am I missing something here? Aren't the two of them married or something?" Weiss said quietly.

Not quietly enough, though. Summer had just caught her breath, but now she and Raven looked at each other and both of them lost it completely, howling with laughter as their daughters sat there looking mortified. "No, Weiss, Summer and I aren't married or 'together' or anything. We just both made the same mistake of sleeping with the same man, who got us pregnant and then bailed," Raven said, lifting her wineglass in salute. "To Taiyang Xiao Long, who stuck with me just long enough to get his name on my daughter's birth certificate and ran."

"To Tai, who promised to make me my favorite dish in celebration when I told him I was pregnant, went out for ingredients, and never returned," Summer answered, lifting her own glass to match Raven's.

Raven looked down into her glass, her voice sad and low. "Tai promised me the moon and the stars, even talked about getting married. But Yang was a difficult birth, and I was out of it for a while afterward. By the time I knew what was going on, he was gone." Yang didn't say a word, just reaching out to take her mother's hand. "Summer and I lived our whole lives in Vale, raising the daughters Taiyang abandoned with us. We never had a clue the other one existed until we both got called to the courthouse on the same day."

"We meet in the park outside the courthouse while we waited for our hearing," Summer sighed, silver eyes meeting her daughter's matching orbs. "We got to talking, realized Ruby and Yang shared a father and decided to introduce them to each other. Ruby had just turned five, Yang was seven at that point, and they took to each other immediately."

"Then we show up for our hearings, which were with the same judge at the same time, and he tells us something we already knew, that our daughters shared a father. What we didn't know was that while Tiayang may have been a shitty human being, he wasn't exactly broke. And then the judge proceeds to award us the maximum child support the law would allow, backdated to birth, with interest, penalties, fines, fees, etc, etc. Somewhere in the middle of this, Summer sees Taiyang hunkered down at the other table, trying to keep us from noticing him. She hands Ruby to me, marches over to Tai, backhands him right in front of the judge, and then marches back over and takes Ruby back."

"Tai's lawyer raises a protest about me smacking him, and I tell the judge I don't care, I'll take whatever he wants to hand down, even a bit of jail time if he wants, it was totally worth it," Summer added with a grin. "Then Raven pipes up with, 'If they want, Ruby can stay with me, get to know her sister some more.' The judge looks at us, looks at Tai, then back over at Ruby and Yang, who were getting along like a house on fire, and says 'I don't think that will be necessary, Miss Rose. I don't want to put a damper on them getting acquainted.'"

"And in the middle of dinner that night, Summer asked me out on a date. I said no. And asks me again every year on the anniversary of the day we met, and I always say no," Raven finished with a sigh.

Summer chewed her lip for a moment, then met Raven's red eyes with hers. "So what made you say yes this time?" she asked timidly, afraid of what Raven might say.

"Because at this point, all that's missing is a pair of rings and a piece of paper, and I can't imagine me and Yang's life without you and Ruby in it. I figure, I don't know, one date won't hurt," Raven answered, taking a larger sip of her wine than she meant to.

Silence fell across the room, and it was Ruby who spoke first, softly. "You never told me you hit him, mom." Raven winced, realizing that there was probably a reason Summer had never mentioned that to Ruby.

"I... it wasn't something I meant to do when I marched over there. I just wanted to look him in the eye, one last time, but when he looked up at me, I couldn't help myself. I still don't know how I feel about that moment, even after ten years. But I don't regret knowing him, because that gave me you," Summer said, rising from her chair and giving her daughter a hug.

"To family, no matter how they come to be that way," Raven said, lifting her glass in toast again."

"To family," everyone chorused, raising their own glasses.

* * *

It was later than Weiss expected by the time she made it home and she crept through her front door with no small amount of trepidation. The sounds of a cheering crowd came from her mother's home office, and she decided to investigate.

Her mother was sitting at her computer, watching what looked to be a Sparta tournament. "You're home late, Weiss."

"I'm sorry, mother, I-"

"You have nothing to apologize for, other than not giving me a call so I didn't worry." Willow paused the video she was watching and turned to look at her daughter. "I decided to look into that game you're always playing. I didn't realize how popular it was; whoever created it must be making a fortune."

Weiss shrugged. "The game's free to play, and nobody really knows who makes it, it's hidden behind shell companies. There are people trying to find out who makes Sparta and why, but nobody has actually been able to prove anything. I suppose it adds to the allure."

"That does add a certain air of mystery to the whole thing, doesn't it? Now I see you need a neural interface setup to play the game, can I see yours? I've never seen or used one and I'm rather curious." Weiss sighed and bowed to the inevitable, setting her rig and the headset Ruby had given her on her mother's desk, wincing at the tape holding the controller unit's case together. Willow frowned. "This looks rather battered and worn; how long have you been playing?"

"Th-three years. I bought the unit second-hand then, and I've been doing my best to keep it working. Ruby, that's one of my new friends, gave me that headset this afternoon. It's still better than the one I had," Weiss added, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"Mm." Willow turned the controller unit over in her hands, thinking. "Well, I suppose if it's getting this worn out, it's probably time you got a new one. Nothing, what is the term, 'bleeding edge' I think, but good enough to play with your friends."

* * *

Weiss had her phone to her ear as the doors of the Vendo-Mart slid open before her. "Yes, mother, I understand. No, having the house to ourselves is fine tonight. Klein will be there to make sure we don't misbehave. Yes, Ruby got carried away that one time, but no damage was done and she has promised to behave herself in the future. No, probably a lot of ranked play, trying to improve our team rating. We're doing well, but new teams still have to prove themselves. I'll talk to you later, then." She put away her phone with a sigh, scanning the ranked arrays of vending machines.

"Mom still got you on a short leash?" Yang asked, poking her head out from behind a machine.

"Not as short as it once was, but still shorter than the one your mothers keep you on. How did their latest date go? I didn't want to ask at school; someone might get the wrong idea." Ah, here was a rare treat; this machine had a large bag of Weiss's favorite brand of corn chips. Usually, all she could find were the snack-sized ones. If she exercised some restraint, this bag would last her several days at home.

Yang gave an exaggerated shudder as Weiss retrieved her chips from the machine. "They're not really talking about it, but I think it went okay. I mean, we've all been living in the same house forever, but to have the two of them actually dating and stuff is just really, really weird." Yang looked around for a moment, dropping her voice low. "I think Ruby saw something, something they're trying to keep private. She's been really secretive lately."

Speak of the devil, here came Ruby and Blake through the front door of the Vendo-Mart, chatting animatedly. "Sorry to be late, guys, Blake had a thing today and I tagged along. Ooh, a big bag of those awesome chips you like, Weiss. Are you gonna share? Pleasepleaseplease," Ruby wheedled, her eyes lighting up at the sight of Weiss's prize.

The white-haired girl arched an eyebrow at her team leader. "No, but there is another one of these in the machine. That way you can have some to take some home with you."

"Yes!" Ruby shouted, pumping her fist and running off to find the bag, Yang laughing as she raised her hand for a fistbump, Blake meeting her with a sigh. "Everything cool, kitty-cat?"

"Everything's okay. Just a routine meeting with my caseworker. She's still pushing me to put myself in the genetic database, to help me find my real parents, but I'm not sure about it." Weiss grimaced in sympathy; Blake was a foster kid, stolen from her parents at the age of five, and was going to age out of the system eventually.

"I get it. And remember, the invitation to stay with us still stands. We wouldn't have offered if we didn't mean it, okay?" Blake nodded, a touch of pink coming to her cheeks as she moved off to find her own snacks.

The four of them strolled through the streets of Weiss's neighborhood, Blake and Ruby in front, Yang and Weiss trailing behind. Suddenly the sky darkened, as the scattered clouds overhead coalesced into dark, brooding stormclouds Blake looked up with a grimace as thunder began to roll. "Looks like we'd better hustle to your house, Weiss." Weiss nodded and the four of them started running.

Globs of inky black liquid, some of them big enough to fill whole buckets, began to plummet from the sky. The spatter from one struck Weiss on the cheek, and she wiped it off with the sleeve of her jacket. Something about the liquid just felt _wrong_ somehow, made her skin crawl. As the four of them watched, the globs started to flow together, forming writhing black pools that sent a shiver down their spines. Some sort of, _creature_ was the best word any of them could think of, started to push its way out of a nearby pool, pulling the liquid from the pool into itself. It was all gaping jaws and claws, its body an inky black, a bony plate on top of its head. The creature's red eyes looked at them, and it opened its mouth to shriek a hunting cry at them before it charged.

 _"Run!"_ Ruby screamed, matching words to action as she grabbed Blake's arm and started running back the way they came.

"Where are we running _to?"_ Weiss yelled, fighting the urge to glance behind her, fearing what she'd see.

"The Vendo-Mart! Those things are built like a fortress!"

"Sounds like a plan, sis!" Yang didn't even stop running as she snatched up a shovel some workmen had left leaning up against a newly-planted tree.

Another one of those creatures jumped up on the hood of a car, shrieking at them, and Yang bashed it upside the head with her shovel, sending it tumbling to the ground and driving the blade of her shovel into its body before it could regain its feet.

Blake's eyes widened as the creature's body began to evaporate into smoke. "What the hell are those things?"

"Trouble," Ruby said, looking up at the roiling clouds above. "And I don't think it's going to be stopping anytime soon. Lots of people are going to get hurt, we need to find a way to fight back. Come on."

Hours later, the girls crouched behind an overturned police car, staring at the immense, gorilla-like monster occupying the road between them and the Vendo-Mart. "Sis, I don't think I can kill that with a shovel," Yang whispered, her hands tight on the shovel's handle.

"What about a shotgun?" Weiss asked, gingerly pulling one from the hands of the mangled remains of the police officer in the front seat of the car.

"Weiss!" Ruby hissed. "That's stealing or something!"

"So?" the white-haired girl asked, checking to see if it the shotgun had any shells left before searching the body for more. "She doesn't need it anymore, and if we could ask her, she'd probably tell us to take it to protect ourselves." Weiss started sliding shells into the shotgun one by one. "Ruby, things have gone straight to hell in a rocket-powered handbasket. If those things are here, they're all over the city. And I for one am a firm believer in being as heavily armed as possible in a situation like this." She racked the shotgun, a determined look in her eye. "Now, do we see what else we can scrounge, or do we run like rats?"

"Do you even know how to shoot that thing?" Yang asked, giving Weiss a questioning look.

Weiss gave her a withering look. "You just saw me load it, didn't you? Back in Atlas, I had a boyfriend for a while who decided to show me how to shoot, thinking it would impress me. He got really angry when his 'itty-bitty little angel' turned out to be a better shot than him. One moment." Weiss reached back in and pulled out the fallen officer's sidearm and lifting the body to check for spare magazines. "She didn't have a lot of ammunition left. You did good, Officer Adele Mundy. We'll take it from here," Weiss whispered, closing Officer Mundy's eyes and doing her best to arrange the body.

"I know how to shoot, too. One of my foster dads was a gun nut," Blake whispered, and Weiss passed her the pistol and the one spare magazine she'd found. Blake ejected the magazine, checking how many rounds were left before grimacing and sliding the spare magazine in its place.

"Guess that leaves me this," Ruby said, hefting what looked like the mutant offspring of a crowbar and a pickaxe.

"Where did you find that?" Yang laughed.

"The trunk. I think there's more ammo, too. You guys didn't think to look there?"

A quiet check of the trunk yielded not only more ammunition but a bulletproof vest, which went to Ruby by a vote of three to one. (Ruby wanted to give it to Yang.) "So now what?" Weiss asked, once more peering around the car at the monster.

Ruby started to open her mouth, only to start fishing for her phone as all their phones got a message at the same time. "It's from the Sparta game," she said, puzzled

Yang frowned as she read the message on her phone.

FROM: Sparta High Command

TO: Panzer Pilot Yang Xiao Long

CITY OF VALE UNDER HEAVY ATTACK BY HOSTILE FORCES REPORT AT ONCE TO VENDO-MART NEAREST YOUR LOCATION FOR IMMEDIATE REPEAT IMMEDIATE DEPLOYMENT

"Why does it want us to go to the Vendo-Mart?" Yang asked, only to be met with shrugs and blank looks from the others.

"Like any of us would know!" Weiss hissed. "Well, we were planning on going there anyway, right? But how do we get past that thing?"

"Leave that to me," Blake whispered, taking the mutant prybar from Ruby and sneaking around the corner and out of sight.

Minutes later, there was a crash around the corner and the gorilla-monster shuffled off in the direction of the noise. The three remaining girls shrugged and dashed across the street to the Vendo-Mart, taking cover among the vending machines. "Now what?" Weiss asked, her shotgun leveled at the door.

"We wait for Blake," Ruby muttered, not even noticing that the machine she hid behind was loaded with cookies.

"But-"

"We. Wait. For. Blake."

Fortunately, it wasn't long before the prybar waved around the corner, Blake following behind. "Sorry to take so long, I pried one of those great big hanging neon signs off a building for a distraction and it attracted a lot of attention besides the big guy. Man, these things are dumb. So any clue about our mysterious orders?" The others shook their heads and shrugged. "So let's grab some supplies and find a bolt-hole."

Blake walked over to a machine that sold trail mix and nuts, figuring that was better survival food than candy or chips. She raised the prybar, but before she could bring it down, red warning lights began to flash. "Shit, the alarm's still on!"

"Who cares?" Weiss said. "Survival situation, right? Let's just take what we need and go. We can always plead extreme circumstances, right?"

Before Blake could answer back, a voice came over the intercom. "All pilots report to launch positions. All pilots report to launch positions."

"Launch positions? What are they talking about?" Yang spread her arms wide, accidentally whacking one of the machines with her shovel, cracking the glass. "I don't see any panzers here, do you? This is some code-head's idea of a joke!"

"Guys, the slushie machine's goone." Ruby's voice came from the back of the store.

"Geez, Ruby, it's the end of the freaking world and you're worried about the freaking slushie machine," the blonde replied rolling her eyes.

"It's what's in its place that you need to see." The slushie machine was gone, all right. Behind where it had been was an elevator with the Sparta logo on it.

"Well, this is mysterious," Yang said, then shrugged and reached for the button.

"Yang, don't!" Weiss hissed. "We don't know where that goes!"

"I dunno, probably to the basement where they keep the stuff to restock the machines, right? Gotta be safer than here."

"All pilots report to launch positions. All pilots report to launch positions," the voice on the intercom repeated again as the elevator doors opened.

"See, a nice normal elevator. Nothing to worry about, princess," Yang laughed, taking up position at the back of the elevator. "Come on, I'll be they have tons of cookies, Ruby."

"Cookie!" Ruby said with a laugh. "Right now all I want is somewhere safe to take a nap."

Blake and Weiss looked at each other and shrugged, then joined the sisters in the elevator.

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened on a cavernous room, a walkway stretching into the dark. Lights came on, and the four of them stood there, awestruck at what they saw.

"Are those...?" Weiss asked, not believing what she saw.

"Panzers," Ruby whispered. "Real panzers. What the hell?"


	2. Main ()

"All pilots report to launch positions, all pilots report to launch positions," the automated voice repeated over the intercom again, orange warning lights flashing as the four girls stood staring at what they had thought was nothing but a virtual fantasy now standing before them, brought to life in cold steel.

"All pilots report to-" Yang snapped, yelling at the ceiling. "We get it, we get it! Do you seriously think we're going to be dumb enough to climb into those things? We haven't had any training or-Ruby, what the hell are you doing?!"

Yang's sister had walked down the catwalk to what where one of the panzers stood with its chest open and the pilot's seat extended She ran her hands over the seat, looking at the controls. "I'm just having a look, Yang. Wow, this looks just like the Centurion's cockpit in the game." Ruby stepped back, taking in the panzer's angular head. "I think it's a type B or maybe C Centurion. There really wasn't much difference between the two. Urban camo and what looks to be a general-purpose loadout."

"That makes sense." Weiss stepped forward, looking up at the Centurion's head. "And I'm not certain, but I think it's a type C. The sensor cluster in the head is different, and they added secondary sensors on the shoulders."

"Good choice, if you're hiding panzers down here for emergencies." Blake was leaning back, arms resting on the railing behind her. "The Centurion series is a solid, general-purpose panzer, just the right size for urban combat. There's no way to know what sort of enemy you'd be facing."

"Might be specialist panzers in other-wait, wait, why are we even having this conversation? Come on, everyone!" Yang spread her arms wide, taking in the hanger, the panzers, other angular shapes they could barely make out in the darkness. "This can't be real! Panzers aren't real, and there's no way you could get them down here without anyone noticing. I got it, I know what happened. We all fell asleep playing Sparta and stumbled into some crazy monster invasion scenario. We're dreaming while we're playing, that's all."

Weiss tilted her head in consideration. "Well, I know one way to test that idea." She stepped over and grabbed Yang's nose, giving it a hard twist and eliciting a yelp of pain from the blonde. "There goes that idea. Nothing that happens to you in a neural interface game can cause actual pain, and I don't think you can feel pain in a dream either."

"Well, yeah, okay, maybe they are real, but we're still not going to climb into those things, are we? I mean, using military stuff without permission or, you know, actually being in the military has got to be some sort of crime right? There's probably real pilots on their way, right now, waiting to climb into these things and kick some monster ass. Let's just sit tight down here and wait. We might get in trouble with the military or whoever, but I think they'll let us off easy if we just tell them it was open, right? Right?" Yang was getting worried; Ruby was giving the panzers a look the blonde didn't like, and so were Weiss and Blake.

Finally, Ruby shook her head, silver eyes full of sadness. "It doesn't matter, Yang. People are up there, getting chased and killed by those monsters. If I can do something about that, I have to, I just have to." Ruby turned and ran back over to the panzer she'd been looking into, climbing into the cockpit.

"Ruby, get real! We're just kids! We don't have any training, we're not prepared for this! Please, Ruby, don't do this!" Yang was pleading with her sister now; why couldn't Ruby see reason?

Ruby stopped in the middle of adjusting her harness and shook her head, not daring to look up at her sister, afraid Yang would see the tears she could feel starting to trickle down her face. "That's where you're wrong, Yang. Don't you get it? Sparta was just a training program for panzer pilots, dressed up as a video game. Didn't you ever wonder why the game rewarded you for playing in full sim mode, doing the startup sequence, things like that? This _is_ what it was designed for, so that when they needed panzer pilots, we'd be ready. And the reason we're the ones that got the message? Because somehow, they knew, they _knew,_ Yang, they knew that when people needed us, if they gave us these panzers, we'd use them. And they were right, damn them. People are hurt, people are dying out there Yang, and if me climbing into this cockpit saves lives, then I'm going to do it. I can't not do it, not and be who I am."

Yang could see determination on Ruby's face as the chair retracted into the cockpit. "Ruby!" she yelled one more time as the armored hatch hissed shut with a clang.

Ruby's heart was pounding in her chest, hands shaking as she worked her way through the litany of starting up a panzer. Her brave talk to her sister had been nothing but the truth, that was just the way Ruby was wired, but that didn't stop her from being terrified all the same. No use worrying about it. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the biggest, baddest thing in the valley." She'd seen that on a t-shirt once and it seemed really appropriate now. Ruby couldn't think of anywhere safer to be than sitting at the controls of a giant robot, wrapped in several tons of armor and carrying enough firepower to level a skyscraper. Or something like that. "Main computer on, turbine start, system self-checks all green, switch power from aux to main." A nervous grin crept across Ruby's face at the new-yet-familiar sound of the panzer's engine roaring to life, then throttling back down to idle. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat before opening the default local comm channel. "Crescent Rose, ready to deploy."

There was a pregnant pause, then, "Myrtenaster ready to deploy."

"Gambol Shroud, ready to deploy."

Ruby waited a few more seconds, then sighed. "Just the three of us, then?"

"Yeah." She could almost hear Blake shaking her head. "She still was yelling at us as we climbed in, calling us all crazy."

"I could never live with myself if I let the two of you do this alone, now could I?" Weiss's voice was sharp. "Besides, I owe Officer Mundy. Now, how do we launch these things?"

"Uh, I hadn't gotten that far," Ruby admitted, drawing chuckles from the other two. "Wait one, there's an extra menu in the overlay labeled 'Hangar Services.'" Ruby flipped through the menu, a grin spreading on her face. "Looks like we've each got our own elevator, plus some other elevators for extra weapons and ammo. Ooh, they've got Reapers in their inventory."

"What, they actually made those ridiculous things? Only you would be glad to see the _worst_ weapon in the entire game become a reality, Ruby," Weiss snapped.

"And who is it that never goes out without whip-swords if they can avoid it, hmm?" Ruby said, forcing a laugh. "Okay, let's get these things to the surface and then help ourselves to the weapons racks, load up for Armageddon."

As Ruby's panzer reached the surface, something fell off the top of the elevator cage. Looking down, she could see it was a wrecked car, one she remembered them taking cover behind as they bolted for the entrance to the Vendo-Mart. Ruby gulped and toggled the clamps, loosing her panzer from the gantry. It swayed a moment, then steadied. Time for the moment of truth. Ruby reached for that sense of _otherness_ that always came when playing a neural interface game. There it was. Her panzer took a step forward, crushing the wrecked car under her foot. "Oops," Ruby said, a giggle escaping her lips. She took a few more steps forward, raising her panzer's right hand and flexing the fingers.

"Just like the game," Blake said, and Ruby turned to see a panzer standing next to hers, throwing a few experimental punches, Blake's callsign displaying over its head in her heads-up display.

The elevators that had carried their panzers to the surface had come up on the sides of the Vendo-Mart's parking lot, with the extra weapon racks at the back of the lot. Weiss had stepped to the back of the lot and was looking them over, comparing their contents to what the hanger computer said was there. "Everything matches, I guess we can-Ruby, look out!"

Something hammered into the back of Ruby's panzer, making it stumble. She straightened and turned to find the gorilla-thing or its twin standing there, roaring and beating its fists on its chest like a real gorilla would. Instinct and practice took over, and in one fluid motion, Ruby pulled the rifle from its mounting point on her panzer's back, firing a burst into the monster's chest, staggering it for a moment before it charged her with a roar.

She grunted as it slammed into her, bracing herself to avoid being knocked to the ground. Even as the monster wrapped its arms around her panzer to lift it off the ground, Ruby jammed the rifle into the beast's stomach, firing at point-blank range. The gorilla-thing roared in pain or rage, squeezing the panzer tighter.

Blake was the first to act, grabbing a panzer-sized sword from the weapon rack nearest her and attacking the monster with it. "Let her go!" she yelled, bringing the blade down on the monster's arm, half-severing it, black smoke streaming from the wound.

Their white-haired teammate took a different approach. She pulled her own rifle and put a burst into the beast's head. Half of its bone mask shattered and the beast roared again, swinging one of its fists at Weiss, who danced around the blow and kept firing, putting round after round into the monster. Ruby took advantage of the beast's distraction to slip out of its grasp, stepping backwards and firing her own rifle at the monster.

A third rifle joined Ruby and Weiss's, and the beast lunged at fist one of them, then another as they poured fire into it, confused as to which of them to attack. Finally, the monster fell to the ground, its body already starting to evaporate into thick black smoke, "Geez, sis, can't I leave you alone for five minutes?"

"Yang! You came!" If Ruby hadn't been so keyed up on adrenaline, she could have passed out in relief.

"Pfft, what sort of big sister would I be if I let you go charging off by yourself and get killed? Besides, if I didn't back you up I'd never hear the end of it from either of our moms."

"Right. Okay, load up, take all the ammo we can carry, including a spare rifle and all the flechette ammo they have. Don't forget to grab your melee weapon of choice; these things like to get up close and personal," Ruby ordered, matching words to action.

"Flechette ammo?" Blake asked, puzzled.

Before Ruby could answer, her phone rang. "Ruby, thank god! I'm sorry I didn't call earlier, we got hit by a huge wave of casualties, there's monsters overrunning the city, the police have turned the hospital into a fortress, I can't reach Raven, have you heard from her, is your sister with you? Are you safe?" Summer's words spilled out in a panicked rush, and Ruby felt guilty that she hadn't thought to call her mother sooner.

"Yang's with me, mom, and we're both okay. Safe, even." Well, for certain very elastic values of 'safe.'

"Okay, okay. Where are you? Can you get to the hospital?"

"Um, we're at the Vendo-Mart near Weiss's house. I don't know if we can reach the hospital or not."

"Right, if you're safe, stay there. You even have my permission to eat all the sugary snacks you want."

Ruby shook her head. "No can do, mom. Right now we've got a chance to do some good in this mess, save some lives."

"What in the world are you talking about, Ruby? I want you to stay safe."

"Remember how you once said that to do the right thing, sometimes you have to not do the smart thing? Well, the four of us are about to do something really stupid."

"Ruby Rose, you explain-" Ruby hung up, turning her phone off for good measure.

"Sorry, my mom called. I told her we were safe, but about to do something dumb. And the flechette ammo is for swarms of the little monsters," Rube said, turning her radio back on.

"Ouch, sounds like I can expect a similar panicked call. Did she mention my mom?" Yang asked, hefting a belt-fed rotary auto-cannon.

"Sorry, she said she couldn't reach her."

"At least my mother and brother are out of town tonight," Weiss added with a sigh.

The three of them sank into a gloomy silence, thinking about their families. Finally, Blake cleared her throat. "Well, let's be about it."

The four panzers moved out in a diamond formation, Ruby on point, Weiss and Yang behind her, Blake taking up the rear. Yang had discovered that the panzers had smart paint, so Ruby relented to putting their team crest on their right shoulders and their number on the left, assigning One to herself, Two to Yang, and Three to Blake. When Weiss asked, "And I assume I'm Four?" Yang had laughed, answering, "No, you're a ten, princess!" making the white-haired girl blush while Blake and Ruby laughed.

Their first encounter with monsters after leaving the Vendo-Mart came in the form of a pack of hulking wolf-human hybrids. The creatures were swarming around a heavily-built brick building that looked to have been converted from its original purpose into an art gallery. Over the creatures' howls and snarling Ruby could barely hear panicked screaming from within, and that was all she needed. Her rifle came up, and she took a deep breath as she centered her rifle on the biggest one of the werewolves, firing a burst into it.

Her target faltered but didn't go down, and it turned toward them with a snarl, raising its head to howl in rage. The rest of its pack did the same, rushing to attack them, trying to swarm them and take them down with sheer numbers.

Not today. The girls laid down heavy rifle fire, Yang firing short _brrrt-brrrt_ bursts with her rotary gun, all of them careful to angle their shots so they didn't hit the gallery. As the last of the werewolves dissolved into smoke, a heavy door slid open and they could see a thin man dressed in black standing in the opening. "Thank you! Those, those _things_ have had us trapped in here. Is more help coming?"

"As far as I know, we're it right now," Ruby answered over her loudspeaker. "But if I was the army, I'd be headed this way with everything I had. Stay here, shut the door, and stay safe."

"But you have to stay here, protect us!" the man shrieked, only to have an elderly woman in the crowd behind him slap him on the back of his head. "You idiot! Those monsters are all over the city, and those robots of theirs seem to be highly effective in handling them. Regardless of whether or not there are more robots around, these four should look out for others as well, not just your skinny ass!"

"They're not robots grandma, they're panzers! Just like in Sparta," a boy that looked to be all of ten piped up.

"Yup, just like the game," Ruby answered, giving him a thumbs up. "Do you play?"

The boy nodded. "Grandma doesn't like it though. Says it's too violent and there's no point to it."

"Well, I play, and here I am piloting a panzer for real, so keep it up!" Yang chimed in, striking a muscle pose.

The boy looked dubious. "No way, what's your callsign?"

"Crescent Rose," Ruby said.

" _The_ Crescent Rose? Awesome! Grandma, she's tops on the Vale leaderboards, she's badass! Guess that's because she does it for reals, which is kinda cheating."

Yang laughed. "This is our first day driving these things for real. Lots and lots of training beforehand, though, so don't worry, we're gonna totally shred some monster ass. "

"What?" Yang added as they moved on. "You said it yourself, Ruby, Sparta was nothing but a panzer pilot training program in disguise. And we've all clocked a ton of hours, haven't we?"

* * *

Block by block, they fought their way through Weiss's neighborhood, always striking due west, toward the hospital where Ruby's mom was a nurse. If nothing else, it gave them a clear destination.

They came to a Vendo-Mart that had been another panzer cache, the elevators left open on the surface. A Grendel panzer was sprawled in a road nearby, its armor torn to shreds, the pilot's compartment open and mercifully empty. "Holy crap, we're not the only ones," Yang breathed.

"Yeah. Okay, ammo up, guys. See if they left anything we can use, and I do mean _anything._ " Ruby started flipping through channels, trying to raise anyone. "This is Crescent Rose, transmitting in the blind, trying to reach other panzer units. I repeat, this is Crescent Rose, transmitting in the blind, trying to reach other panzer units."

"Ruby?" Jaune's voice came over the radio, sounding surprised. "I mean, Crescent Rose, this is Crocea Mors, reading you loud and clear. What's your status and location, over?"

"Status is all four Vixens are alive and well, but low on ammo. We're in Centurions, general-purpose loadout. Uh, we found a wrecked Grendel, was that one of yours?"

"Yeah. My sister Saphron was piloting it. She's hurt, but stable, we think. We're trying to get her somewhere safe. What's your plan?"

"Kick ass, take names, save lives, and hook up with the police or army when we can. Make our way to Vale General hospital; my mom's a nurse there. Yang's mom is who knows where."

"That's a plan I can get behind."

Ruby was about to respond when she saw a light flashing on her HUD. Blake had pinged her. "Good news, gang, I've made contact with Crocea Mors and his team. This was where they mounted up."

"Who was in the downed panzer?" Yang's voice was quiet as she rifled the weapons racks.

"Jaune's sister. She's hurt. Let's hook up with them; safety in numbers."

It didn't take them long to meet up with Jaune's team; the Grendels that Jaune's team was using were more melee-focused than the Centurion, and it showed in their load-outs. Nora had grabbed a rocket-assisted hammer, Ren had armored forearm guards with retractile blades, and Jaune had a sword that could extend to a greatsword at need. All three of them sported twin shoulder-mounted rapid-firing cannons. "Looks like you had the same thoughts we did," Jaune said as they came into view. "But, Ruby, a Reaper? They're useless!"

"Only because nobody takes the time to learn to really use one!" she retorted. "And if you think I'm being silly, Weiss has whip-swords!"

"They are an elegant and effective weapon if one takes the time to master them," the white-haired girl retorted.

Jaune laughed. "Eh, sword's easier to learn and works just as well. I'll stick with it. Listen, I'm carrying Saphron in my rear seat, so I can't move too much. But don't sacrifice yourselves for us, okay?"

"Got it." Ruby could hear the pain in Jaune's voice. She knew he had like seven sisters or something like that, but he'd give anything for each and every one of them. "Let's move out."

* * *

Adel cussed a blue streak as she ducked back down behind the barricade to reload her shotgun. She would really like five minutes alone with whatever genius decided that gathering civilians in a shopping mall would be safer for them than just fucking evacuating them. People were panicking, and ammunition was becoming a real issue. You could shoot the little monsters with a pistol or shotgun, hell club them down with the stock if you had to, but what the hell were they supposed to do about the really big ones? Some of the damn things were a couple of stories tall, and Coco was all out of rocket launchers. "Where's the army when we need them?" she muttered, sparing a glance for her partner. At least they'd go down together.

"Probably headed this way with everything they have. There's just a whole lot of city for them to get through and a whole lot of people to save and a fuckton of monsters to save them from," Scarlatina answered with a weary smile, reloading her weapon. The rabbit-eared woman paused, a shotgun shell in her hand. "Coco?"

"Yeah, Velv?" Coco answered absentmindedly, racking a shell into place and starting to stand up.

"After we get done with this, want to go out to dinner?"

Coco froze, pulling her sunglasses down to stare at Velvet. Three years riding together, and she'd never realized. "Are you, are you asking me out on a date?"

Velvet blushed. "Yeah, yeah I am."

"Hell of a time for it. But yeah, I'm game. No need for somewhere fancy, though; I hear the food court here is to die for." With that, the pair pointed their weapons over the barricade again, neither one of them really expecting to go on that date. But what the hell, right?

Then the monsters paused, the tide of inky-skinned horrors stopping in place as suddenly as if someone had thrown a switch. A few more scattered shots rang out, then they stopped as well, and a confused silence spread around the mall. Velvet looked at Coco, a puzzled look on her face, but Coco only shrugged, just as confused as Velvet. Before either one of them could say a word, the monsters turned and all started running in the same direction.

Then Velvet heard it. Cannon fire, lots of it and coming closer. Someone was laying down some _serious_ firepower on the monsters. "The army's here!" she yelled, grabbing Coco by the waist and pulling her close to give her a peck on the cheek.

"Easy there, Juliet," Coco laughed. "Buy a girl a drink first, at least? But we still gotta hold out until they get here."

"R-Right," Velvet stammered as she picked up her shotgun again, a furious heat rising on her face.

Whatever help Coco was expecting, what came around the corner Was Not It. Half a dozen or so giant freaking _robots_ loaded down with more whoop-ass than she could imagine strode into view, shooting and smashing one monster after another. Coco winced as one of them, howling some warbling war-cry over its speakers, jumped into the air, bringing down a hammer that she would have swore had a damn _rocket engine_ on it down hard on a fucking scorpion-monster that looked big enough to crush cars with its claws. Another one with blades on its arms whirled and danced between its foes, never quite where they seemed to expect it to be, darting in to drive its blades home when it could.

One of them strode toward the mall with determination, taking its foes down with a titanic sword that she would have swore kept changing size. Coco saw Velvet standing next to her with her mouth open. "Holy fuck," Velvet whispered, "the army actually built them."

"Okay, two things." Coco turned to look at Velvet. "One, I didn't think you actually knew swear words, and two, what are you talking about?"

Velv blushed. "Yeah, I cuss, just not often, and not at work, okay? My mom was really big on that, growing up. But, um, these things look like panzers, the giant robots from that video game, Sparta. I play, sometimes, okay?"

"Think I might take it up too," Coco said quietly as the robot, no, Velvet had said the word was _panzer,_ hadn't she, well, the one with the big damn sword anyway, strode up to their barricade. Its chest opened up as it knelt down, and they could see what looked like a teenage boy in the front seat and a bandaged teenage girl in the back, slumped over unconscious.

"Hey," the boy yelled. "I could use some help over here. My sister's hurt, and I'd like to get her out of this thing. Being jostled, I, I don't think it's good for her."

"Yeah, sure," Adel muttered. "We'll just, um, whistle up a medivac for her." Velvet jabbed her with an elbow, and she reached for her radio with a sigh, calling for a stretcher team.

Not that the rest of the robots were standing idle. Four more that looked to be of a different model or whatever were moving together as a team, laying in with ranged weapons, three of them with something like an oversized rifle and the fourth with some sort of rotary gun, like a Gatling or something. They moved and fought together with the ease of long practice, the rifle ones taking half a step back to swap magazines, letting the empties drop to the ground with a _clang_ before stepping back up to the firing line. Before the line of advancing monsters reached them the three with rifles racked their weapons, one drawing a sword, a second deploying some sort of whip things from its forearms, and the third pulling out some sort of collapsing polearm from its back. The panzer with the rotary cannon just let it fall to the ground, its ammo pack joining it a moment later. Velvet just giggled. "A Reaper and whip-swords? Okay, either the army's copying from Sparta or somebody's got access to classified info."

Before Coco could ask what she meant, the blade on the end of the polearm whirred to life and the three of them charged. Okay, _chainsaw_ -polearm, then. The panzer worked it like a majorette works a baton, striking out to stab with the whirring blade before pulling it back and swinging it around, smashing down with the butt end before slashing at another one of those goddamn huge gorilla-things.

The one with the whips was a dancer too, wrapping one of its whips around the upper arm of a huge werewolf-thing before pulling back on it, the whip flashing despite the rising smoke from the growing number of inky black dead monsters piling up around them. The werewolf's arm fell off, and Velvet whispered in Coco's ear, "Whip-swords. Kind of like a cross between a whip and a chainsaw chain. Hard to get, a real pain in the butt to use, but really cool and deadly if you master them."

"I am so starting up this game. So, um, what's your, um, callsign or login or whatever?"

"HellBunny," Velvet answered as the stretcher team ran up, taking the girl away. Without a word, the blonde kid sealed his robot back up and went back into the fight.

The other two were dealing their share of devastation as well, despite the more conventional nature of their weapons. Sword-bot was moving with all the grace of a kendo master, severing limbs, heads, torsos, switching between a one-handed and two-handed grip, and even trading hands entirely. Cannon-boi was just plain wading I, smashing down monsters left and right with its heavy gauntlets and boots.

Finally, one of the biggest monsters Adel had seen yet, if not _the_ biggest, some sort of demon-bird-thing swooped down at them, its beak wide, claws at the ready to rend armor or carry them away, if it thought it could. The others stepped back, pulling their rifles again, but the one with the polearm just aimed it at the bird, like it was sighting in or something. What was it going to do, _throw_ its weapon?

 _Boom._

Okay, make that _cannon_ -chainsaw-polearm. "Reaper?" Coco asked

Velvet nodded as the bird-thing fell to the ground, obviously badly hurt but still in the fight. "Yep. And again,-"

"Hard to get, pain in the ass to use, really cool and deadly if you master them." Coco shook her head. "Fuck. The army's got giant robots, and it's like some anime nerd armed them. What's wrong with normal guns and stuff?"

Velvet punched her in the arm. "Hey, I happen to _be_ an anime nerd, thank you very much! Just for that, you're watching the entire run of _Shining Storm Warriors._ Including the movies and OAVs."

Coco started to laugh, then choked on the smoke from the dissipating monsters. "Gah, this shit reeks. Wonder what it's doing to our lungs?"

Velvet shook her head as the one with the polearm jumped on the bird-monster's head, jamming its blade deep into the bird's skull before triggering the cannon again, shattering its head. "Die today from being torn apart, or die later from whatever it'd doing to our lungs, take your pick."

"Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Next year, if I can manage it."

Finally, the smoke cleared, and Coco couldn't help but let out a low whistle as she stared out over the parking lot. It looked like the surface of the moon, with craters from missed shots or shots that had gone straight through their target everywhere. Hell, the buildings she could see weren't looking much better. She wouldn't have bet there was an unbroken window within three blocks. Even the panzers looked haggard and worn, their armor scratched and scored.

Finally, the one with the polearm trudged over to them, one arm mostly missing its armor, a leg not quite working right, the weapon being used as a crutch or staff to help it walk. Its chest opened up, and the pilot's chair slid out, revealing a young girl who looked like she was maybe old enough to be a high school freshman. Hell, she was still wearing what looked like a school uniform, and while Coco would be willing to bet she'd normally be described as 'upbeat' or even 'chipper,' right now she looked haggard and worn.

It was the girl who spoke first. "Hey, um, do you know where we could find the army? I think we kinda borrowed some of their stuff."


End file.
